Modern electronic devices are becoming so small and their electrical terminals are so delicate and closely spaced that it is difficult and expensive to make electrical connections by soldering or other established techniques. U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,981 (Fujita et al.) uses an adhesive layer for individually electrically interconnecting multiple pairs of arrayed electrodes. The adhesive layer includes spherical electrically conductive particles of substantially the same thickness as the adhesive, thus providing a conductive path through each particle that bridges facing pairs of electrodes. The particles are randomly distributed throughout the adhesive layer, but the Fujita patent indicates that if the particles comprise less than 30% by volume of the layer, they will be sufficiently spaced so that the intervening adhesive will insulate against short circuiting between laterally adjacent electrodes. Carbon powder, SiC powder and metal powder are said to be useful.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,213 (Stow) discloses a tape having an electrically conductive backing and a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer which contains a monolayer of electrically conductive particles that could be identical to the adhesive layer of the Fujita patent if Fujita were to use a pressure-sensitive adhesive.
The thickness of all electrically conductive particles used in each of the Fujita and the Stow patents should approximate the thickness of the adhesive layer. Smaller particles would not bridge facing electrodes whereas larger particles would reduce the adhesive contact. This problem is obviated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,946 (Stow et al.) by smaller electrically conductive particles of complex shape which are present in sufficient quantity to form numerous electrical bridges from one face of the adhesive to the other. However, the high proportion of conductive particles required for reliable bridging between narrow electrodes might engender a lateral conductivity that would prevent a single piece of tape from electrically connecting narrowly spaced pairs of electrodes without short-circuiting any adjacent electrodes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,145 (Salyer et al.) makes electrically conductive adhesive connections by filling a hardenable organic adhesive with particles having ferromagnetic cores and electrically conductive surfaces. Two electrodes are joined by the adhesive while it is in a mobile state and, while the adhesive is hardening, a magnetic field is applied in the normal direction, thus aligning the particles to form conductive bridges between the electrodes. Preferred particles have an iron core coated with an electrically conductive metal such as silver which is more resistant to oxidation. Preferably the particles are elongated, and their lengths equal or slightly exceed the bond thickness. Any manufacturer of electrical equipment who wished to use Salyer's method to make electrical equipment would need to procure apparatus for creating a suitable magnetic field and to develop the capability of using that apparatus to position that field correctly. Also, special precautions would be necessary if the electrodes to be connected were part of a device which could be damaged by a strong magnetic field.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,132,204 (Giellerup) shows a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape wherein "one or more stripes 13 of electrically conductive material are laid over the upper face of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, as shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings, and the tape is then passed between a pair of pressure rollers which compact and flatten the stripes of metal foil (particles?) and the adhesive" (col. 2, lines 2-8).